I don't understand how are we supposed to make a semi-realistic semi-cartoonish graphics with no gradients. This is not a WindWaker or Super Mario World remake. Also it'll be helpful instead of just saying "worst thing evarr, graphics are crap" ,to actually point what you don't like, mention how to improve it or show something that does it better. Thanks. Edit: yes I included basic xbox 360 controller support, I'll do the D-Pad and rumble and will try to include regular DirectInput via SlimDX.
I know you probably weren't aiming this at me, but gee, let me bold it for you. Obviously you need gradients. That's besides the point. The screenshot comparison Black Squirrel put up really drives the point home re: the trunks and the badniks, but also even on the mini-shrooms and that little brown bit at the top right of the screen.
Just wanted to point out that XNA is fine for your purposes. Heck, isn't Mono.xna being developed as well for Linux support? Besides, it should just be a rendering engine for your purposes anyway. If your project is done right, you should be able to switch graphic rendering without modifying the gameplay at all. I'm pretty sure you can embed an XNA 4.0 installer as well later on an installer of your own, so no worries about that. My only gripe at the moment regarding the display is that the aspect ratio is fixed.
An option to switch between 16:10 and 16:9 is going to be added, both with advantages/disadvantages. 16:10 will have borders on 16:9 screens, 16:9 will be slightly zoomed in.
Falk, yes I wasn't aiming at you, and thanks for the remarks About the XNA issue, I'm only comfortable writing in C#, which means for the most part either XNA or SlimDX as I've experience making 3D games and tools in them. While SlimDX have lesser requirements, like the required .net framework is already present in most Windowses, it'll drop completely the possibility of multiplatform releases.
Yeah, that doesn't make much sense. Just scale your resources depending on the current resolution's height, and then you just take that as the base value for any of your transformations. Anything added to the sides is just an extra. Pretty much the easy solution to adding widescreen support, as you don't even need to account all the possible aspect ratios.
We did do some sky and are working on those blurred trees at the very back but they aren't finished yet, and therefore not in the demo. We'll take the rest into account, but not sure about the ovals being smooth? I don't get it. We tried to add a little detail where even the original just had a solid coloured oval. And the shadows from the terrain grass that are cast onto the terrain ovals are like that in the original. EDIT: in response to roxahris xP
Shadows generally aren't sharp. If you take a look, you'll notice the original doesn't actually have shadows there, due to the trees looking completely different (see: the leaves in general). Gradients should only really be used as a thing for light. Consider, for instance, the matter of specular highlights. Notice how the spheres have tiny specs of light, and only really have gradients for the parts in shadow. Adding gradients where there were none before can potentially look nice, but here you seem to have pretty much overused them. On the ovals it seems kind of odd. On the mushrooms it looks pretty weird. The original art had two to three colours for the stems - and if you take a look, you'll note that a large portion of the 'shroom is flat.
Mono.xna has been dead for over two years now. There are a few open source engines that you can use as the basis for your game. There's the OpenSonic and the ProSonic engines, for one. Both are cross platform and support Sonic games well, with the former being able to support Sonic Heroes style gameplay as well as classic Sonic gameplay. I suppose the latter could too, with its scripting engine. That being said, if the engine was written in C# (which it probably is if it is using XNA), then porting it to C++ wouldn't be too difficult. The hard part would be finding equivalents of the various pieces of XNA that are C/C++ and cross platform. That can't be done without knowing what pieces of XNA were used...
Can't say I'm a fan of this project in its current state, but it's not bad for something that's only been in progress for three months. Rolling physics seem to work better than in Sonic 4, at least.
Wow! I've never seen a project trounced so inappropriately! It's like coding and redrawing all this shit from scratch isn't even something that requires effort. Why don't all these Sonic Worlds projects with all the recycled and thoughtlessly rearranged art ever get threatened with thread locks? Not to suggest that this is worth playing or anything. These HD remakes are a waste of time from the word go when the people involved are always convinced that topping the source material is even a remote possibility without some degree of artistic skill. Reinterpret, don't ever recreate. That said, I very much appreciate that it only took these two guys three months to reach the level of polish S2HD had with a whole fucking year of dev time. That's very amusing.
I like it. And I definitely don't think it needs to be trashed. I think the artwork is just fine, except for some animation frames are misaligned and someone will definitely need to come up with inbetween frames to make the animations smoother than the originals. As for the engine... well you need to fix the way slopes are handled, and collision in general. Especially loops. The jumping in a loop trick doesn't work anymore.
In my opinion: I echo the cries of the art needing more detail, less gradients. I suggest a little more interpretation in the artwork, instead of the straight up-scale that most of them have at the moment. Regarding the Sonic sprites, I recall hearing the original Sonic 3 sprites were pre-rendered 3d Models. Perhaps a similar concept could be employed here? But then the art might clash, hmm. Sonic definitely needs smoother animation, if nothing else. Looking forward to the progress on this project.
Would anyone be so kind as to make a video of this? I want to give it a shot, but I can't because this thing refuses to run on Wine because I need Mono for windows but I don't know how to install mono for windows and it realizing that I have. I hate this mac sometimes. EDIT: But from the screenshots you guys are a bit too gradient happy. Might I suggest trying a different art style? Maybe something like Wario Land Shake it or Rayman origins or something. Also your sprites for Sonic could use some work, I could give a crack at it later if you like (I can't color, but I can at least draw and outline sprites). Also take more creative liberties with your art. For example the HUD, no one is going to care if you recreate the really dated looking HUD. Make something better looking and more modern, since that is the point of the project after all.
Sonic 4 wants its physics back. :v: Other than, I found it nice, but there are major/obvious bugs with the layer switch, such as Sonic dipping about 3 pixels in the ground when he goes trough a loop. The graphics are a bit gradient happy, but I'm going to assume these aren't final.
He's on a roll! His second post in this thread (and the reply to it) shows a person being trounced inappropriately.
C'mon kids, stay focused. Tweaker's opinions are valid and, in my opinion, pretty on the nose. I think this is a neat start to something that is unnecessary. But most things that come out of the forums are. But that's not a bad thing, do what you'd like. Keep up the good work. Right now it's buggy and the art seems a bit amateurish, but it's an interesting start. Just a side note, I'd prefer to see stylized new art instead of redrawn old art.
Between this and the critique that was posted by roxahris, I actually have to ask, is the 'grass' in Mushroom Hill meant to be some kind of absurd moss, grass or something else? Doesn't seem to stick up like grass. Spoiler In B4 complaining
